Contents

Overview

For ages, Sony Online Entertainment has belittled its users with the Play Nice Policy, which states that you must be nice to the other kids on the playground. Now, we will enforce our own Play Nice Policy. Our policy states that EverQuest must be nice to the other kids on the playground -- in this case, everything else on your computer. Since Sony has neglected to implement this policy, we are left to do it for them until they do. So here it is, EQPlayNice. Enjoy your computer as it was meant to be enjoyed, not waiting an hour for your web browser to load up while you're playing EQ.

In mid-2004, Sony implemented a simplified version of EQPlayNice, thanks to our efforts and calls by the community to implement our system directly into their game. While their version does improve system performance for the average user that simply wants to play the game and possibly perform other tasks, it does not implement the full features of EQPlayNice. Thus, EQPlayNice is no longer literally required for playing EverQuest, but it vastly improves the gaming experience when playing multiple sessions of EverQuest.

EverQuest Patch Days

EQPlayNice is patch-specific, and information on our server about each patch must be updated whenever EverQuest is patched. Generally, our server is updated before the EverQuest servers come back up after a patch. On rare occasions when the patch is unexpected and/or very short, or when EverQuest changes drastically enough, we may not have our server updated immediately. When EQPlayNice has yet to be updated for a patch, you will see a message like this:

This version of EverQuest is not currently supported by EQPlayNice. You may need to report this version information "v2 eqgame.exe Feb 7 2005 21:31:40" to Lavish Software (please do not report this message without giving the version info!).

As the message indicates, this is an EQPlayNice version mismatch and should be reported in our EQPlayNice forum -- AND you should not report the message without including the version! (Please take note, as generally this gets reported in the WinEQ forums and without the version...)

Features

CPU and Framerate Limiting

EQPlayNice allows two different methods of basic limiting -- CPU and Framerate. CPU limiting aims to keep CPU usage at a constant rate by giving up the same amount of CPU time per frame. Framerate limiting aims to give up the minimum amount of CPU time per frame to meet a framerate goal. EQPlayNice allows selection between the two methods for foreground as well as background, and also allows a goal setting for each.

Rendering Limiting (Subscriber Only)

EQPlayNice provides what we call Rendering Limiting, which slows the rate at which the game world itself is redrawn, while allowing the user interface to redraw at full speed. Because rendering of the game world takes a relatively large portion of time each frame, skipping this effectively makes the game run at a much faster framerate. Generally this is used for background game sessions, which may not be visible in the first place, or do not need to be full motion video. When playing several characters on the same machine, this proves to be invaluable.

EQPlayNice Lite Feature Set

Reduces the amount of processing time dedicated to EverQuest without ruining the foreground window's framerate

Allows customized settings via EQPlayNice.ini (see EQPlayNice.txt)

Works with or without EQW 2.4+ or WinEQ

Works on all instances of EverQuest running on your machine

Keeps recent patch profiles handy to support European server users

Does not work on Test Server

EQPlayNice Pro Additional Feature Set

Allows tweaking of the actual world rendering rate so that the interface still works and responds at full speed, but the display of the actual world updates less (Note: If render limiting is on, the display will "flicker", so this is generally only good for background windows). Rendering the world takes approximately 50% of the CPU time used every frame

Basic Usage

Configuration

ForegroundMaxFPS=40 -- This is the maximum framerate (in frames per second) for FOREGROUND EQ
sessions. Foreground is the one you are actively using, and generally
you would want that to have a higher framerate than the background.

BackgroundMaxFPS=30 -- This is the maximum framerate (in frames per second) for BACKGROUND EQ
sessions. Background is any EQ session you're NOT actively using.
Generally, you don't need as high of a framerate in the background.
Keep in mind that the lower this number is, the less accurate your
movement will be, so you don't want it too low either. Also, MMOTools
subscribers can take advantage of the "Rendering" settings, which allow
background sessions to have a HIGHER framerate than the foreground,
while using LESS processing time.

Mode=1 -- This is the FOREGROUND mode. There are two different modes for EQPlayNice.
Mode 1 is "FPS limiting" mode. This mode allows EQ near-full CPU usage,
while still allowing the system to run gracefully, up to a desired
framerate.
Mode 0 is "CPU limiting" mode. This mode sets a specific amount of CPU
time to give up each frame, where the framerate would be exactly the FPS
amount set, if EQ used up no time for itself. Because EQ does use up time
itself, the actual framerate will be lower than this number, and will never
exceed it. This means that more CPU time is freed up each frame.
By default, the background is set to FPS limiting, so the foreground window
always runs excellently.

BGMode=0 -- This is the BACKGROUND mode. By default, the background is set to CPU
limiting mode, so you may run multiple EQ sessions more gracefully.

Indicator=1 -- (Lavish Software Subscribers Only) This determines whether the FPS indicator will be
displayed on your screen. By default, the indicator is in the upper left
corner of the screen, directly under the network status indicator.

IndicatorX=5 -- (Lavish Software Subscribers Only) This specifies where to place the indicator. X
is left/right

IndicatorY=25 -- (Lavish Software Subscribers Only) This specifies where to place the indicator. Y
is up/down

Rendering -- (Lavish Software Subscribers Only) The settings under "Rendering" allow you to change
how often EQ will re-draw the actual game world. The process of drawing the
game world takes a long time, and increasing these numbers will cause EQ to use
less CPU processing time. This does not affect actual gameplay, and the user
interface still re-draws. Mouse and keyboard controls are also not affected
(if anything, they will become more accurate and faster response). Any rate
besides 1 will cause a noticeable "flicker" on the screen, when the game world
updates. This is an undesirable effect for foreground windows, but is fully
acceptable in background sessions, which you might not even see in the first
place, and even if you do, you need the visual information from the game world
less often from background sessions.

FGRate=1 -- (Lavish Software Subscribers Only) This is how often EQ will render the world in
the foreground (1 out of this number).

ReverseFGRate=0 -- (Lavish Software Subscribers Only) If this is set to 1, FGRate will then be considered
"All but 1 out of this number".

BGRate=30 -- (Lavish Software Subscribers Only) This is how often EQ will render the world in
the background (1 out of this number). This setting being relatively high is
considerably beneficial to people who want to "multi-box". It's recommended
that you set this at the same number as the "BackgroundMaxFPS", for best results.
This gives a once per second re-draw of the game world, and allows you to
increase the framerate of background EQ sessions while retaining low CPU usage.
This significantly improves overall performance for multi-boxers.

ReverseBGRate=0 -- (Lavish Software Subscribers Only) If this is set to 1, BGRate will then be considered
"All but 1 out of this number".